
OLD 7'ESTAMENT IILSTORY.
13
formed, and so keenly was this felt that the very
magicians exclaimed, ' This is the finger of God.' "
The fifth miracle was designed to destroy the
trust of the people in Beelzebub, or the Fly-god,
-
who was- reverenced as their protector from visita-
tions of swarms of ravenous flies which infested
the land, generally about the time of the dog-days,
and removed only, as they supposed, at the will of
this idol. The miracle now wrought by Moses
evinced the impotence of Beelzebub, and caused
the people to look elsewhere for relief from the fear-
ful visitation under which they were suffering.
The sixth miracle, which destroyed the cattle ex-
cepting those of the Israelites, was aimed at the
destruction of the entire system of brute worship.
This system, degrading and bestial as it was, had
become a monster of many heads in Egypt. They
had their sacred bull, and ram, and heifer, and 'goat,
and many others, all of which were destroyed by
the agency of the God of Moses. Thus by one act
of power Jehovah manifested his own supremacy,
and destroyed the very existence of their brute
idols.
Of the peculiar fitness of the sixth plague (the
seventh miracle) says the writer before quoted, the
reader will receive a better impression when he is
reminded that in Egypt there were several altars
upon which human sacrifices were occasionally
offered, when they desired to propitiate Typhon, or
the Evil Principle. These victims being burned
alive, their ashes were gathered together by the
officiating priests, and thrown up into the air, in
order that evil might be averted from every place
to which an atom of the ashes was wafted. By the
direction of Jehovah, Moses took a handful of
ashes from the furnace (which, very probably, the
Egyptians at this time had frequently used to turn
aside the plagues with which they were smitten) and
he cast it into the air, as they were accustomed to